Palestinian women stripped, dragged by hair during Israeli raid: report

Several Palestinian women, including young girls were subjected to brutal assault and abuse by Israeli soldiers during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month.

A report by Middle East Eye, authored by journalist Maha Hussaini, detailed how Israeli forces subjected Palestinian women to sexual harassment and abuse while taking them hostage.

According to the report, men were stripped to their undergarments, while women were ordered to remove their headscarves, with some also forced to remove their clothes.

A 13-year-old girl was dragged by her hair, forced to kneel, and ordered to march south on foot with her family.

One particularly horrifying incident involved a pregnant nurse being kicked in the abdomen by an Israeli soldier.

Women who resisted were beaten and searched by male soldiers, who subjected them to further harassment.

Maryam al-Muqayad, a survivor of the ordeal, said, “We refused to remove our hijabs, so they started exerting more pressure, ordering girls under 20 to move south without their families. When the families refused, the soldiers strip-searched many women and [sexually] harassed them.”

She disclosed that the women were forcibly taken to al-Fakhoura School in northern Gaza, where soldiers pushed them into bathrooms, demanded they remove their clothes, and beat them, dragging them by their hair when they refused.

Muqayad added that the women were forced to kneel while soldiers threw their clothes at them and verbally abused them.

The Israeli forces then moved the women to various locations, making them walk behind Israeli military jeeps. A Palestinian man was also forced to accompany them as Israelis used him as a human shield against Hamas attacks.